he wanted to kill the man so he put a gun next to him and told the best lie he could to incite him sam showed at the dinner scene that he will lie to get what he wants with the lincoln letter being shown to be a fake and he knows what lies to tell white people to get the results he wants so heres a southern civil war vet that wont even sit to eat at the dinner table with everyone because theres a nigger there sam knew exactly what would make him mad enough to go for the gun and that is to attack his legacy his bloodline the story was most likely a fabrication and it got the result he wanted edit at least the rape scene was a fabrication he probably did kill the generals son just didnt do that extra stuff